#while looking for something else

[asfaltics]

.. .

P1000734 . Istanbul (synagogue) . 20040524

same trip  

[clatterbane]

Really not sure that this is the imagery I would want to go for, if I were trying to sell electrically heated socks. 🔥😨🔥

(Paging Big Clive!)

[cycas]

The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey - A welcome visit to the alternative sources

Originally posted  20th Dec, 2012 By far the most popular version of the story of 'The Hobbit' is the version loosely translated from the Thain's Book copy of the Red Book of Westmarch by Professor JRR Tolkien in the mid-20th century.  

Professor Tolkien was of course an entertaining writer with a strong grasp of the Old Westron sources for the late Third Age period, but it is most unfortunate that his translation, riddled as it is with pro-Gondorian sentiment, has taken such a firm hold of the popular imagination that the other sources - not available in convenient English translation - have been forgotten.  

The "Thain's Book" translation is often read by non-specialists in the period as a complete and accurate description of events at the end of the Third Age.  More accurately, it should be considered as a group of sometimes self-contradictory sources, none of which survive in the original.  

This group of texts had at least three authors, one of whom later admitted he had lied in his original account, and later amended it.   The material has certainly been recopied and 'corrected' several times by much later writers.  It occasionally deals with matters, such as the history of the dwarf-kingdoms and the political organisation of Northern Rhovanion, of which none of the original authors had much understanding or experience.

In this context, it is pleasing to discover that the recent movie based on the life of Bilbo Baggins (or Mad Baggins, as he is usually referred to in later Westron sources originating from the Shire)  has called on material beyond Professor Tolkien's English translations.  I believe this to include material available until recently only in Khuzdul, and now of course, translated into modern Croatian as the nearest equivalent modern European language. I also noted elements of a version of the legend that to my knowledge, is preserved only in material written in the most obscure dialects of Sindarin, and now held in the archives office in Machynlleth.  

The sources for this period that originate from outside the Shire are of course also problematic in many ways.  Like the Thain's book, they are often self-contradictory, particularly on the important but almost undocumented area of Dwarf military organisation and economic development. Source preservation has been poor, particularly in the case of the document that is thought to be Balin's personal diary, available today only in the most fragmentary and puzzling form.  Re-copying has added errors, particularly to the Khuzdul sources which are notoriously difficult to transcribe quickly or accurately.  The Sindarin material probably glamorises life in Rivendell and accentuates the military power of the Sindarin-Noldorin remnant living there - but it may still be more accurate than the Shire-version, which was very clearly written by a hobbit who had at that time no grasp at all of any of the Elvish languages.

None the less, such attention to detail is most unexpected in a movie made for the entertainment of the masses, and deserves to be recognised and commended.  I look forward eagerly to the planned future works, and particularly to the release of the full bibliography.

[greentippedarrow]

“I know you care, Ollie. You save a look just for me.“

[tirion-fordring]

littlest-death-knight answered: I’ll take a starter from Tirion, unless you want to pick up one of the other threads.

“You will discover that there is more to being a paladin than just defending the weak, bringing justice to the vile and vanquishing evil,” the Highlord spoke from the fallen log he sat upon, a libram in one hand while he stroked the head of a curious fawn and Ashbringer laying beside him. Tirion turned his emerald gaze to his squire while she hacked at logs with an axe, sheering them of their bark and branches to prepare for cutting. Nearby the distant sounds of lumberjacks sawing at logs and chopping at trees could be heard.

“A paladin should also lend a hand where she can give it,” he continued when the fawn half ran, half hopped away. He gestured toward the log she was working on. “No job is beneath a true and faithful paladin.”